Former Tory MP Harvey Proctor has said he is assisting police with its enquiries but continued to deny being part of a "rent boy ring".

Detectives from the Metropolitan Police's Operation Midlands have been searching his home, which is located within the grounds of Belvoir Castle, near Grantham, Leicestershire, as part of an investigation into historical child sex claims.

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Former Conservative MP Harvey Proctor has denied being part of a "rent-boy ring" or attending sex parties with other prominent figures, after his Leicestershire home was searched by police investigating historic allegations of child sex abuse.

Harvey Proctor pictured in 1991 Credit: PA

Mr Proctor - who left Parliament in 1987 after pleading guilty to acts of gross
indecency - said he knew nothing about a VIP paedophile ring alleged to have existed at Westminster during the 1970s and 1980s, or allegations that three boys linked to the abuse were murdered.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I find myself in a very Kafka-esque fantasy situation.

"The police have said basically that they are investigating historical sex
abuse allegations going back to the 1970s and 1980s.

"I have never attended sex parties at Dolphin Square or anywhere else. I have not been part of any rent-boy ring with Cabinet ministers, other Members of Parliament or generals or the military.

"I conducted my private life in a discreet manner. It wasn't I who outed
myself, it was the press who did an assortment of things to out me.

"I was a discreet person and regarded in the House of Commons as a very
independent MP and a loner. The last thing I would have dreamed of doing was talking to other MPs or ministers or anyone else about my private life. It
wasn't that I was ashamed of being a homosexual, it was that I didn't think it
mattered a damn to the work I did on behalf of my constituents."

Mr Proctor said he was keen to be interviewed by police as soon as possible to clear his name.

"The police wish to interview me," he said. "They talked in terms of that
interview taking place in a matter of weeks. I asked for that interview to take
place at the earliest opportunity."

Officers are investigating allegations that three boys linked to the alleged
ring were murdered.

Mr Proctor represented Basildon in Essex from 1979 to 1983 and Billericay, also in Essex, from 1983 to 1987. He also sat on the executive of the right-wing pressure group the Monday Club.

Ryan Smith from Skegness suffered a serious brain injury after the accident in July 2013. He was not wearing a cycling helmet. Since then his family has campaigned to make it compulsory for children to wear them.

This weekend, Ryan took his first steps, without the help of a frame to support him, progress the teenager says he is proud of.

Police want to speak to this man in connection with a series of cases of criminal damage in Grantham Credit: Lincolnshire Police

Police have released an image of a man they want to speak to after 55 cars were damaged on a Grantham street.

The spate of crimes started in October, when 20 cars were scratched on Huntingtower Road, quite near the station. Then, on Christmas Eve, another 13 cars were targeted, some for the second time.

Then, between December 30 and January 3, another 22 cars were damaged.

Police want to speak to this man in connection with a series of cases of criminal damage in Grantham Credit: Lincolnshire Police

Whoever is responsible is believed to have caused up to £35,000-worth of damage. It's though that all the crimes were committed by a man walking up and down the street between 1am and 2am, scratching the paintwork on cars with an implement of some kind.